The Pitfalls of Party Loving Political Scientists

Recently two well known political scientists Norman J. Ornstein and Thomas E. Mann have chided columnists Matt Miller and Tom Friedman for calling for a third-party, or independent, candidate for president. The two scholars urge that the American people continue their co-dependent relationship with the two-party system. They acknowledge that this relationship is "dysfunctional," but only offer their "dismay" as to why it is that way.

Their sage advice is that an Independent presidential candidate is a bad idea; in their words, pure "Fuhgeddaboudit," which is a technical term for bull shit. But in sharing their wisdom, they completely disregard the contrary advice of our Founders.

As I show in Chapter Two of my recent book, Internet Voting Now!, among the most important original objectives of the Framers, or authors, of the US Constitution, was to fashion a government that could not be taken over by political parties. Generally, our nation's Founding Fathers abhorred political parties. They regularly referred to parties as "factions." They knew from their own experience that political parties put the party's self-interests, such as winning elections and obtaining privileged legislation, before the best interests of the people as a whole. Wary of such organizations, they sought to establish a system of government that would always strive to act in the best interests of the whole country.

John Marshall, who some say is the greatest Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, wrote, in a letter to his brother, that party politics are "despicable in the extreme... Nothing, I believe, more debases or pollutes the human mind than faction."

Another independent thinker, Thomas Jefferson, had a deep contempt for political parties. A friend once asked Jefferson if he considered himself a member of any political party. Jefferson replied, that "[I have] never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever, in religion, in philosophy, in politics, or in anything else, where I was capable of thinking for myself. Such an addiction is the last degradation of a free and moral agent. If I could not go to heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all."

With amazing prescience John Adams wrote, "There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties … This … is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution."

Hamilton was contemptuous of parties, in part, and like Jefferson, because they could corrode an individual's sense of civic morality. Hamilton wrote that a "spirit of faction" can drive individuals to do together that "for which they would blush in a private capacity."

Lets not forget the warning of our first president, who said in his Farewell speech that political parties could "become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government…"

As a nation we goofed. We have lost the way our Founders set for us. But instead of one faction dominating the whole, we have a two-party system, which is a malignant parasite on the body politic. Now, as Americans Elect comes along with a slim hope of breaking the grip that parasite has on the presidential election process, these two highly eurdite professors of political science come along with their "collective wisdom."

But instead of being wise, they ask the most pathetic question conceivable in light of our Constitution's original intentions; that is, "Even if an independent did prevail, how would he or she govern?"

The answer is that he or she would govern as the Constitution intended – without the interference of factions! Party loving political scientists have lost the capacity to see that the two-party system smears over the separation of powers originally intended by the Constitution's Framers. They take the smear – Party Government – as the summum bonum of American politics. But just those few quotes from the Founders should be enough to show how wrong they are. The highest good for American politics is not party government, it is Constitutional government, with a separation of powers rather than a smearing together of powers by private self-serving groups.

While Americans Elect is not free of flaws, at least they are making an effort to break off the co-dependent relationship between the American people and the two-party system. We Independents should reject the advice of party lovers, and give our full support to AE.

William J. Kelleher, Ph.D.
Internetvoting@gmail.com
Blog: http://tinyurl.com/IV4All
Face Book: http://tinyurl.com/BillonFB
Twitter: wjkno1
Internet Voting Explained on
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/WJKPhD


Notes:
Marshall, http://tinyurl.com/MarshallBio, page 410
Jefferson, http://etext.virginia.edu/jefferson/quotations/jeff0800.htm
Adams, http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Adams
Hamilton, Fed 15, http://avalon.law.yale.edu/subject_menus/fed.asp
Washington, http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/washing.asp

Kresky: You Can't Understand the Constitution Without Reading It

From

YOU CAN’T UNDERSTAND THE CONSTITUTION WITHOUT READING ALL OF IT
on Legal Briefs (by Harry Kresky)

There has been some controversy generated over the reading of the United States Constitution during the opening session of the new Congress, organized by the new Speaker of the House, John Boehner. It had to do with “scrubbing” the document, ostensibly to conform it to the amendments (which affected some of the original text) and, in particular, the failure to read the part of Article I, Section 2 stating that each slave shall count as 3/5 of a person in determining the number of seats in the House allotted to each state...  More

Fulani and NYC Independence Party on Nonpartisan Elections: The People Will Decide!

Independent leader Lenora Fulani introduces Dr. Jessie Fields, Vice Chair of the Manhattan County Committee of the Independence Party of New York, a physician in the Harlem community, at the August 10, 2010 press conference in defense of nonpartisan elections for New York City, a recommendation now before the mayoral appointed Charter Revision Commission.




Dr. Fields: "Nonpartisan elections is about improving the quality of our democracy, and that is as American as apple pie..... The words 'political party' are not in the Constitution... We should--we MUST--put nonpartisan elections on the ballot and let the people decide."

UPDATED FRIDAY NIGHT HANKSTER CHAT: How Independents Can Make the Most of the Fourth of July

UPDATED 12/15/12 -- Fourth of July in December! Talk about perfect timing -- I received an email the other day letting me know that there was a broken link on my post FRIDAY NIGHT HANKSTER CHAT: How Independents Can Make the Most of the Fourth of July

We have replaced the link in the second line "Read a section of the Constitution..."

READ ON, AND DREAM OF JULY 4, 2013!

************************************************************
You probably have plans to get together with friends and family for a joyous backyard or public park BBQ!  Here are some ideas to enhance your Fourth of July celebration:

Read a section of the Constitution as you're turning the dogs and burgers...

Let people know there's a radical independent streak in America that doesn't much cotton to the ideological right wing...

Get in touch with our working class history!


Here's what I'll be doing:

Drive around Queens County, one of the 5 boros of New York City, knocking on doors of independent voters (Independence Party members to be exact) petitioning to qualify candidates for the ballot.

New York City Independence Party Press Secretary sent this email to The Hankster today, and if you're in NYC -- or elsewhere, you might want to celebrate Independence Day by checking out these events and news items:

Dr. Lenora Fulani will be speaking at Rev. Sharpton's National Action Network meeting on Saturday hosted this week by attorney Michael Hardy. 

Tune in to WLIB 1190 am on Saturday, July 3rd from 9:00 - 11:00 am and listen to an important discussion on the issue of nonpartisan elections and its relevance to the black community.

Update:

This week an open letter to the Charter Revision Commission from a cross-section of 32 religious and community leaders, political independents, civil rights activists, educators, labor activists and elected officials was delivered to the Commission  urging them to place an initiative for nonpartisan elections on the ballot this November. The letter states in part:

Much has changed since 2003 when this matter was first put on the ballot. Voters are more restless, more frustrated with partisanship, and less content with traditional party politics. We believe the time has come for a full and open dialogue on the best ways to make our system more responsive to the changes in political attitudes. Putting the measure on the ballot will provide that forum...Such a dialogue should not be short-circuited on the basis of partisan calculation.  Let the voters be the judge.

You can read a press release on the open letter's submission here.

Also this week the 111-year-old good government group, Citizen's Union, has come out in favor of nonpartisan elections reversing their position from 2003. A New York Times article (p. A26, July 2, 2010) begins: 

In a reversal, a prominent government watchdog said Wednesday that it now supported eliminating the role of parties in city elections, adding momentum to an effort to bring the issue before voters in November. The group, Citizens Union, had opposed the idea of nonpartisan elections seven years ago, when Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg campaigned for it. His effort was handed a decisive defeat by voters. But in a report released on Wednesday, the group said that turnout had grown so low and elections so preordained that parties should lose their domineering power. 

Finally, the Amsterdam News published an opinion piece by Dr. Lenora Fulani this week in which she urges Councilmember Charles Barron, a newly declared independent candidate for Governor, to make nonpartisan elections for NYC a cornerstone of his campaign. 

Stay tuned for details about the next Charter hearing on July 19th and have a happy and safe 4th of July!

The RE-Indictment of “The Oklahoma 3"

From Okie Campaigns:

Oklahoma AG Drew Edmondson has re-filed "CRIMINAL FELONY" counts on "The Oklahoma 3."

“Everyone should be deeply concerned about this,” Oklahoma Sen. Randy Brogdon said. “The Constitutional rights of every citizen of Oklahoma are in jeopardy as well as the liberty of three good people who face ten years in prison. If this shameful political assault succeeds, everyone is at risk. It is an outrage!”

Brogdon said the only crime committed was the disenfranchisement of over 300,000 Oklahoma voters who expressed their voice by exercising their Constitutional rights."The Oklahoma 3" are Rick Carpenter, Susan Johnson and Paul Jacob.

For more Info see Free Paul Jacob

For video click here